The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of apple tree, botanically known as Malus domestica Mill. of the Family Rosaceae, and hereinafter referred to by the variety denomination ‘CIVG198’.
The new Malus variety is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventors, Michelangelo Leis, Alessio Martinelli, Gianfranco Castagnoli and Francesco Tagliani in S. Giuseppe di Comacchio (Ferrara), Italy. The objective of the breeding program was to develop a new Malus variety with deep, red skin color, high sugar content, very firm flesh, scab resistance, long storage capacity and long shelf life.
The new Malus variety, ‘CIVG198’, originated from a cross made in a planned, controlled breeding program in S. Giuseppe di Comacchio (Ferrara), Italy. The female parent is Malus domestica Mill. ‘Gala’ (‘Kidd's Orange’×‘Golden Delicious’ — 1939, patented, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,637). The male parent is Malus domestica Mill. ‘Liberty’ (unpatented, ‘Macoun’×Purdue 54-12-1955). ‘CIVG198’ was discovered and selected in 1996 by the inventors as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in S. Guiseppe di Comacchio (Ferrara), Italy.
Asexual reproduction of the new Malus variety by budding and grafting as first performed in September, 1996, and then again in September, 1999, and in the following years in S. Giuseppe di Comacchio (Ferrara), Italy, and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new Malus variety are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new variety reproduces true to type.